Dug-In Bolt Action Panther Tank

 

--- TRIGGER WARNING - Previously posted to the Analogue Painting Challenge Blog ---

 

Visitors to my house will likely recognize this model - it's been sitting on the sideboard primed for two years? Three years? Since the Earth began to cool? Who knows. But it's painted now. (In fact it had some grey drybrushing on the pavers but I re-primed over that a couple days ago). It's the "Dug-In Panther" model from Warlord Games' Bolt Action range. Can't remember where I got it (someone gave it to me as I know I'd never have bought it) but it's kinda neat all the same.

It's a resin casting, base and turret separate. The idea here of course is that the Germans have dug in a Panther tank basically as a bunker. Presumably the tank was nearly out of fuel with no chance of resupply, or suffered some nearly terminal mechanical problem, so the defenders dug a shallow ditch in the middle of the street, drove it in, and piled the paving stones back up around it.

I painted it in three-colour camo - base is GW Tallarn Sand, the green is Castellan Green/Death World Forest, brown is Vallejo Dark Brown/Steel Legion Drab. Then the model was washed with Agrax Earthshade, the dunkelgelb highlighted Tallarn again, and some sponge chips applied with AK German Camo Black-Brown.

 

The engine was done Mechanicus Standard Grey with Nuln Oil. Paving stones AK Dark Rubber/MSG/Dawnstone/Celestra Grey, and dirt started Rhinox Hide up through Dark Brown to Steel Legion Drab.

Honestly I can't see a great deal of use for the model on our gaming table as most of our WW2 games are set in countryside. But if we have a Berlin '45 game (ever) this will look pretty cool, as the Volkssturm gathered around it demonstrate.

Onwards and upwards! 

Some More Battlefront Pzkpfw. IVs

Well there seemed to be little interest on my post about military watches (thanks for the comment though Greg!) so it's back to wargames figures... you guys must be heartily sick of seeing Afrika Korps armour but we're getting towards the end here, I promise. These are the last three tanks to be painted for the DAK as I've got no more bare plastic to assemble.

As you can see there are two "Mark IV Specials" equipped with the long 75mm KwK 40 L/43. This was temporarily designated by the Germans as the "Ausf. F2" and was the scourge of the desert!

The tanks were painted with a basecoat of XV88 overpainted with Tallarn Sand, then washed Agrax Earthshade and re-highlighted with Tallarn. Decals were then applied and some chipping done with German Camo Black Brown.

I might paint some armoured cars or halftracks and trucks for the DAK, but that's it for tanks, I promise.

Heia Safari!

Some Military Horology!

From time to time (heh) on this blog I digress into different subjects unrelated (or only tangentially related) to wargaming. One of my many non-wargaming hobbies is horology... the study (and in my case, collecting) of watches. Combining this interest with another of my interests obsessions, military history, makes for an fascinating intersection.

This is a lovely piece isn't it! It's a Heuer "Bundeswehr" 1550 SG flyback chronograph. These were issued to the Bundeswehr (German Armed Forces) in the Cold War - particularly in the 1960s and 70s.

The case is stainless steel of course, you can see the four fixing screws right next to the lugs. The Bundeswehr item number is stamped on the caseback, note that this isn't the serial number... that is stamped on the side of the case between the lugs.

On the other side of the case is the manufacturer's model designation - 1550 SG.

The watch came from the seller on a very nice grey leather strap but I immediately ordered an NOS Bundeswehr strap from Jurgen's in Germany.

The strap design is now commonly known as "Bundeswehr" due to its association with this watch. It's a three-piece leather item - a two-piece buckled 20mm strap attaching to the watch between the lugs as usual, and the third piece being a flat oval leather pad fitting underneath the watch case. Supposedly this is due to the watch being used by pilots in the Bundesluftwaffe (air force) where the temperatures in the cockpit could vary from freezing to very hot, and the leather pad was supposed to insulate the pilot's wrist from the hot or cold stainless caseback.

  

Accession number stamped on the strap as well.

Here's a better view of the full strap.

I really like the dial design of this watch. The bezel rotates of course, to keep track of elapsed time. The subdial at the left runs the seconds, the subdial at right keeps track of chrono elapsed time up to 30 minutes, and the chronograph second hand (seen at one o'clock here) is started and stopped by the top pusher, while the bottom pusher resets the chrono second hand from being stopped. HOWEVER... if you push the bottom button while the chronograph is running, the chrono second hand flies back to 12 and restarts automatically. Hence "flyback".

The "3H" in circle is typical of the Bundeswehr issued watches, it signifies that the markers and hands are coated in tritium, which glows in the dark ("3H" is the chemical symbol for tritium, 3 is the mass number and H is for hydrogen of course). Just so there's no mistaking this there is also a tiny "T" over the 6.

Of course there's prominent "Heuer" branding here as this watch predates the 1985 acquisition of the company by the TAG Group, the watches thereafter being branded TAG Heuer.

The Bundeswehr strap makes the watch wear even larger than it is and my wrist isn't huge, so I've been wearing the watch on a one-piece nylon NATO strap.

I was really happy to pick up this watch as I've wanted a Heuer Bundeswehr flyback chrono for years, it was one of my grail watches. They're not that rare but there is a really weird variation of the piece called the "Sternzeit Reguliert" (regulated star-time) that was used by the artillery and was set to "sidereal time" (based on earth's motion relative to distant stars rather than the Sun). A sidereal day is 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4.1 seconds. Try that as your excuse next time you're a few minutes late for a meeting ;-)

I find this stuff fascinating, but if you want a deep dive into the Heuer Bundeswehr watch you can have a look at this site.

Next up is the watch I wear when doing Great War living history. It's a "Queen Anne" hand-winder from West End Watch Company. This is also a fully original piece.

The strap is great, it's from vintagewatchstraps.com and this guy is a real artisan. I sprung for the hallmarked sterling silver buckle and it is just lovely.

Some honest wear on the dial here but the watch winds well and keeps reasonable time at events. The Great War was the real origin of the men's wristwatch and the start of a fashion that survives to this day. Strangely enough, for a time after the war, some veterans resented civilian non-veterans wearing wristwatches - stolen valour! Pretty wild stuff.

Moving forward about 25 years, here's a Swiss watch issued to the German army in the Second World War. The Germans made use of a lot of Swiss watches for their armed forces, including this example by ARSA (A. Reymond SA). It's a handwinder too, as all of these watches are, and is marked "Watertight", "Shock-resistant", and "Anti-magnetic" on the face. All of these properties are important in a military watch, as magnetic fields can affect the running of the watch.

What marks this watch as military issue is the stamp on the case - "DH" stands for Deutsches Heer, the German army. The serial number is stamped between the letters.

Here's a pocket watch from the same maker. My wife got this for me as a wedding present. 

Also "DH" marked, naturally. Nice watch but not many people wear pocket watches anymore do they!
 

Lastly here's a cool RCAF (Royal Canadian Air Force) service watch by Waltham. Like the ARSA wristwatch it's pretty petit by today's standards but it's in very nice condition with what I believe is an original nylon strap.

Military accession number on this one as well (I think the /42 indicates wartime issue) but it's the paperwork that came with it that's really remarkable...

Check this out, original Air Force paperwork! "Requires overhaul"

Here's the evidence it was overhauled... in 1965! Who says the military is wasteful... this watch may have been in service for over 20 years.

Tested and accurate to within 30sec/day... it's no quartz watch or iPhone but not bad for an old hand-winder - keep in mind that the "COSC standard" for accuracy of mechanical watches established by the Controle Officielle Suisse des Chronometres is -4s/+6s per day. I only have one chronometer in my collection (a Tissot Janeiro chronograph) so I'm not super-fussed. These watches are of interest for their intricate mechanical function and aesthetic appeal, not their super-accurate timekeeping.  

Anyway I hope you enjoyed this digression and if you are worried about spending money on awesome watches, you should really stay far away from chrono24.ca!

Forged in Battle Afrika Korps Rifle Company for Flames of War

It's all very well and good painting tanks, but in my opinion, if you want a proper WW2 game, you need infantry. Such it is with Flames of War. A couple weeks ago I finished the 8th Army infantry company for my upcoming birthday game, so now it's the turn of the Afrika Korps models to go under the brushes.

The models are mostly from Forged in Battle with a few from Peter Pig in the command stands. Above are the two company command stands. The models on the right-hand stand are Piggies, I might've swapped a head on the pointing Major.

The rest of the FiB models are quite good - albeit after a complaint about the ones I initially received being terribly miscast and horrible. But to their credit FiB sent me a new pack from "new moulds" and they were pretty nice models.

Unlike the 8th Army dudes there's quite a bit of contrasting detail to paint on these models. The uniforms are Vallejo Khaki washed Agrax, the helmets are AK Light Earth likewise, webbing and straps are Light Earth, wool covers on the canteens are AK Dark Brown or New Wood, rifles are Leadbelcher, Dark Brown and New Wood, slings are Doombull Brown, shovel handles and boots are New Wood. On the officers and some of the men I randomly lightened the DAK caps, tunics or trousers just for a bit of variety.

 

In the FoW list each infantry platoon can have an MG34 machinegun base, so I painted one for each platoon (partly to compensate for the lack of the 2.8cm sPzB41 squeeze-bore antitank rifle that FiB doesn't make). As for the sPzB41... honestly I don't really understand why BF made one an organic part of each DAK infantry platoon. I didn't think they were that widely used (fewer than 2,800 were manufactured during the entire war) and one rarely comes across a mention of it in histories of the desert war... but I stand to be corrected in the comments.

ANYWAY... part of the DAK infantry company list is a platoon of 5cm PAK38 antitank guns. These are from FiB and come two in a pack with crews. The model itself is only two pieces (the barrel is separate) and the trails have the same "wide stance" as the 8th Army 6-pounders, which requires custom-made bases. But they are pretty good models nevertheless, although I think I had to replace the head on one of the crewmen as the original model came wearing a pith helmet (!). The Peter Pig pack of German heads has come in very handy in this project.

 

All in all a very nice set of DAK infantry from FiB. Anyway with the DAK infantry from Battlefront being AWOL these are recommended. The other great thing about this project is using up the spare Flames of War medium bases I've had in a box for well over 10 years!

Here's the entire German contingent I've painted so far. There's still some to paint - more Pzkpfw IVs and some 88mm Flak 36 AT/AA guns - but the impetus for those is reduced somewhat now that I've gotten the infantry painted. Looking forward to the game next week, on which I will duly report!

Heia Safari!

More Afrika Korps Pzkpfw. IIIs and a Matte Varnish Comparo Test!

I painted a bunch more Batttlefront Pzkpfw. IIIs in a variety of configurations for my upcoming Birthday Game, and thought I would spice things up a bit with a comparison test of matte varnish spray.

This is obviously an important issue for those of us who game with our models, as the paintwork needs to be protected from damage while in use. I know that the best way to do this is to varnish first with tougher gloss finish, then hit with matte, but I am lazy and hate wasting time so the models usually get only a matte varnish. HOWEVER when applying decals I usually hit the spots with brush-on gloss before applying the decal to improve adhesion and avoid silvering.

Since I have five pretty much identical models in this post I varnished each one with a different product. You can read about the results below. Test conditions were 20C, moderate humidity, two coats sprayed in my basement.

Testors Dullcote

What can you say about Testors Dullcote. After a brief and inexplicable market absence the champ is back and he's got no worries. The smell is the smell of victory (it IS pretty pungent) but Dullcote is the best, albeit getting on the expensive side...

 

You can see here how it did on the decal, it looks great (that was high gloss finish there before the spray). It took two coats to really eliminate that gloss but the model is uniformly flat.

Krylon UV-Resistant Matt 

Krylon Matte (or as we used to call it, "Fini-Matt") has a new UV-resistant formula which seemed unnecessary but whatever. What I can tell you is that it isn't as flat as the old one, which was great. But maybe I will have egg on my face when all my models have crumbled into dust from UV exposure. Oh wait, most of them are in cupboards or cases in a windowless room in the basement. So never mind.

Pretty good but not dead-flat. You can see the slight gloss on the storage bin behind the turret.

Mr Hobby Matt Water-Based Topcoat

This was kind of the impetus for the post - I saw a guy on Facebook Marketplace selling a can of this stuff for $10 and thought I'd give it a try. Apparently it's popular in the "gunpla" community (that refers to GUNdam PLAstic models, not something sexual) and the seller's models looked good in photos.

"I've used Testors Dullcote and you, sir, are no Testors Dullcote." Having said that it's not bad, a bit more on the satin side than dead flat but worth a try in a pinch.

Winsor & Newton

I tried the W&N product in a fit of desperation when neither Dullcote nor Krylon Clear Matte was available. It's all right but not great, still leaves a pretty satin finish. It's also pretty pungent.

Citadel Colours Purity Seal

OK I guess I have to cut this can a bit of a break because it's likely 20 years old... but I tried it anyway. And it's terrible. Pretty glossy finish and I wouldn't recommend it, even if you could find 20-year-old Purity Seal.

You'll notice one glaring omission in the test, and that's Army Painter Matt "Anti-Shine". Well I have a can of that at home and I recall it being not-great, but I wanted to retry it. When I popped the top the trigger button wasn't there. I guess it must have gotten clogged or something but that put Army Painter out of the test, sorry.

The contenders on test

I really like spray varnish. It's a time saver and if it's Testors Dullcote, it works great. I have a couple bottles of brush on matte varnish I've used, but only occasionally, as I find it a pain. I just ordered two more cans of Dullcote from a vendor here in Canada so hopefully the Dullcote pipeline will stay open in future. 

And since it was new Afrika Korps tanks in the test... Heia Safari!